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It’s time to play a little game I like to call “Which anti-choicer takes the cake?” It is not a fun game. But sometimes–like, for instance, when I can’t decide which horrible quote to blog about, it’s one we have to play.

1) In a Senate committee hearing last week, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky demanded to know if an energy department official was pro-choice and then cried “hypocrisy” because women get to have abortions while his toilet doesn’t work. [Video]

“The point is that most members of your administration probably would be frank and characterize themselves as being pro-choice for abortion. But you’re really anti-choice on every other consumer item that you’ve listed here, including light bulbs, refrigerators, toilets, you name it. You can’t go around your house without being told what to buy. You restrict my purchases, you don’t care about my choices.”

Points for: Comparing the right to abortion to a consumer choice. The irony of calling out pro-choicers for hypocrisy when Paul is, in fact, anti-choice–at least when it comes to abortion. Whining.

2) Rep. Jean Schmidt of Ohio argued on the House floor that women have a responsibility to bear children because those babies might become president.

“Every one of us has the right to life, born and unborn, and it is the women who have the responsibility to make sure that that baby is born. Unfortunately our courts, over 33 years ago, decided to change that, and decided that women have the right to end that life. But Mr. Speaker, we don’t have that right. It is our responsibility to bear those children. I mean, you look at our president. Do you think when he was born his mom thought he was going to be the president of the United States? I seriously doubt it. He didn’t come from a dynasty of presidents. He’s just an ordinary person born from an ordinary mom. But he, you know, had the opportunity and the privilege to live in America and become the president.”

Points for: The child who grows up to be president angle…’cause that’s never been done before.

3) During a committee hearing on a bill that would criminalize abortion, Montana State Rep. Keith Regier Rangers compared pregnant women to cows. Literally. [Audio]

“Ranchers refer to cows as either preg-tested or open. A preg-tested cow is a cow that has been tested by a veterarian and confirmed to be pregnant. Open cows are not pregnant. Preg-tested cows bring a higher price than open cows…Why does it bring a higher price? Because the calf the cow is carrying has a value even though it isn’t completed. If unfinished buildings and unborn cows have a value in Montana, shouldn’t unborn children have a value?”

Points for: The awful word “preg-tested.” The fact that he wraps up with “Your support for HB 167 will show support of all pregnant women in Montana,” as if he didn’t even notice he’d just compared them all to pregnant animals to be bought and sold.

Atlanta, GA

Maya Dusenbery is an Executive Director in charge of Editorial at Feministing. Maya has previously worked at NARAL Pro-Choice New York and the National Institute for Reproductive Health and was a fellow at Mother Jones magazine. She graduated with a B.A. from Carleton College in 2008. A Minnesota native, she currently lives, writes, edits, and bakes bread in Atlanta, Georgia.

Maya Dusenbery is an Executive Director of Feministing in charge of Editorial.

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A woman imprisoned in an Alabama jail wants an abortion, as is her right. But her request to be released and escorted to the nearest clinic to get the procedure was denied. The sheriff ...

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